Town Square

Regional planning staff respond to public comments on Plan Bay Area

Planners from the Metropolitan Transportation Committee and Association of Bay Area Governments reviewed and discussed public comments on Plan Bay Area Friday morning. The four-hour meeting highlighted concerns and added new initiatives.

I wish the conspiracy folk would just read the UN Agenda 21 instead of spreading false rumors about it. We sure wouldn't want the facts to get in the way of our conclusions now would we. Here is the PDF for Dave and others to actually read.Web Link

Posted by George
a resident of Charlotte Wood Middle School
on Jun 17, 2013 at 7:27 am

It's interesting that Bill calls people who talk about Agenda21 Conspiracy folks, but then tells them to go read about it. Bill, we have read about it. And it is a conspiracy of fact!!!

Just read what the APA -American Planning Association wrote about it in their 1994 Northern News. The APA clearly points out that the local Bay Area Program for Sustainability was a pilot program for the UN's Sustainable Development initiative, which is part of Agenda21 from the RIO Earth Summit. It also states that this initiative was brought to the Bay Area by Clinton's President's Council on Sustainable Development.

The same company that wrote the Blueprint for a Sustainable Bay Area (Urban Ecology - aka DCE Planning Center) is the same company that was paid almost $500,000 to write the Danville General Plan.

For those of that think this is a conspiracy, they are right. But the reality it is a conspiracy by the Tea Party to stop local control of decisions What they really want is government control by the Tea Party supported candidates to drive decisions that favor their agenda. The amazing things if the get what they want they will be hurt the most. I went to the K&B homes open house this weekend and while it is not a very attractive development it truly a market driven solution. A land owner was able to sell his land to a developer who paid top dollar for it . In order to pay top dollar the developer and the seller had to conform to some local zoning laws. What would have happened if there were no local zoning laws? Either the land who have been unsellable, been sold at the lower rate or had sold to a developer who could do whatever they want with it (Maybe put a Walmart there)

I am still have no clue what the Tea Parties agenda is (and neither do they) but if you dont think this is a conspiracy by the tea party read this article and thing again. It just took 2 extra years to get to Danville.

For those of you that think this is a conspiracy, they are right. But the reality is it is a conspiracy by the Tea Party to stop local control of decisions . What they really want is government control by the Tea Party supported candidates to drive decisions that favor their agenda. The problem is that their agenda is so convoluted that if they get what they want they will be hurt the most (you know kill obamacare, cut spending at all costs and oh by the way hands off my medicare).
I went to the K&B homes open house this weekend and while it is not a very attractive development it is truly a market driven solution. A land owner was able to sell his land to a developer who paid top dollar for it . In order for the developer to pay top dollar the developer and the seller had to conform to some local zoning laws. What would have happened if there were no local zoning laws or laws that really restricted development? Either the land who have been unsellable as no developer would have been able to make money, been sold at the lower rate, been sold to someone that would have only been able to build 20 acre estates (which I don't think there is much demand out here for) or had sold to a developer who could do whatever they want with it (Maybe put a Walmart there)

I am still have no clue what the Tea Parties agenda is (and neither do they) but if you dont think this is a conspiracy by the tea party read this article and think again. It just took 2 extra years to get to Danville.

@Tom. REALLY? You have been watching too much MSNBC Tom! You said, "But the reality it is a conspiracy by the Tea Party to stop local control of decisions" Wow! You couldn't be more off base. That is just laughable. The Tea Party is about less Federal big bureaucracy and more local control. Local communities know their own needs far more than big fat overpaid government from afar. As far as the Tea Party agenda goes, how simple can it get? They simply want the federal government which has gotten too big for it's britches (and it keeps pushing to get bigger) to go on a diet and get down to it's healthy size. The formula for this can be found in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The federal government has gotten way out of control and lost sight of their purpose. It's so simple. Yet you listen to the crazy lib stations and they are the ones who paint all these insane conspiracies about the Tea Party. The press has so incredibly edited any film coming from any Tea Party rally to match their narrative it's just unreal. Combine that with fake "plants" showing up at rallies and behaving in crazy ways, only later to see those exact same people at liberal rallies behaving "normally". You begin to see what is really happening. It's all about "controlling the narrative" to control peoples opinions and you are a victim of such drivel.

So Nancy I would love to hear your definition of Local control. Right now we have an elected town council representing the people from Danville who voted them in to office. They are making decisions based on the laws passed by the town of Danville and the legislatures of the State of California and the United States of America. Now I agree some of the laws come with guidance based on recommendations from other organizations which happen to be based not only in the US but in other parts of the world but I am not sure why that would be problem.
However, what I hear is you don't like the decisions they are making and you are protesting those decisions. All fair and good in a democracy. But if this was all about local control why would people from all over the Bay Area be showing up to our meeting (The meeting I was at had speakers from El Sobrante (a woman who couldn't even pronounce her city correctly), Corte Madera, Hayward) all speaking against the decisions of our town council. In fact at the meeting I went to not one person who spoke in favor of what the town council was doing was from outside of Danville/Alamo,
So I think you have stop blaming others and take business into your own hands. Organize and vote out of our town council and put in people favorable to your own policies. Then I would be curious to see how you would govern when a developer wants to build in Danville or a major landowner wants to sell his/her land for top market value. I would love to see how your candidates would figure out how to fund the town, keep the roads updated, preserve our top rated schools. I would like to see how you keep housing affordable for our grandparents who raised kids in this town, allow kids who grew up here to live in this town again when they get their first job out of college, ensure that our teachers and firefighters don't have to commute from Tracey or Antioch. I would love to see what you would budget for the 4th of July parade, the concerts in the park, Oak Hill Veterans Memorial.

I wonder what tax increase you would support if the costs of those services goes up and if you don't what services you would do away with.

Nancy Please tell what your definition of local control is and don't give same old BS please give specifics

Tea party wants the government downsized so the party faithfuls can freely roam the lands committing all sorts of crime and atrocities on us (eliminate minimum wage, increase pay disparity between men and women, abolish gun control, eliminate birth control, the list goes on and on...).

Posted by PSMacintosh
a resident of Danville
on Jun 17, 2013 at 2:19 pm

This whole new layer of government that has been created (outside of citizen's control) and squeezed in between the State Government and Local Government (County & City) should NOT EXIST AT ALL.
The fact that they are getting funds (millions of dollars from Cap & Trade legislation, etc.) means that they will continue to plaque us until abolished (and who's going to do that?).
California is doomed to be change in ways that is beyond citizen control.
All of these surveys, meetings, etc. don't really care about really listening to citizen's desires--they are only looking for ways to creep in the final existence of their actual plans and objectives. Their agenda will be accomplish--either now or later.
It's a new day in California--no longer Government BY THE PEOPLE, but Government BY A RADICAL LEFT POLITICAL ELITE.

Oh, c'mon, Jackie. If we didn't read the loonie postings of the wingnuts of the right we would lose track of how deluded people can be. And it's important to recognize how much traction right wing disinformation can get with the gullible. When you "get" how people can read a black helicopter-style conspiracy into Agenda 21 it helps you to understand how they can be conned into global warming denial, the belief that women who are raped won't become pregnant, etc. Reality has remarkably little influence over some people.

There are radicals on both sides of the aisle and if anyone is naive enough to think that any government official is looking out for your best interests then they are really delusional. All the countries in Europe are a testament to how social agendas have evolved over the past 50 years. Take a look at the situation in Italy, Greece or Spain. Go live there for awhile then come back here and realize that for better or for worse, it's still better here! No wonder so many are clamoring to get in and it will not stop until we have a majority of those born out of this country. That is reality and one must accept it. Tea partyers are basically a disgruntled middle class that felt they were not listened to. And they now really know they are not listened to with the past two elections. No need to worry about them anymore, they are outnumbered anyway.

Posted by C. R. Mudgeon
a resident of Danville
on Jun 18, 2013 at 3:38 pm

Stepping back from the actual "debate" (such as it is) for a moment, I thought it was interesting that Tom was (more or less) criticizing the anti-Plan Bay Area folks for protesting, and suggesting that if they are unhappy with the Danville Town Council, they should just wait until the next election and vote them out.

How the world has changed! It used to be that conservatives were the silent ones, who were basically content to confine their political actions to the voting booth, while liberals were more prone to protests, marches, and other forms of activism. Now that some conservatives are getting more politically active, and adopting protests as a means of political expression, suddenly that is a bad idea....

It seems to me that conservatives are simply adopting some of the methods of the left, in terms of protests and marches. Except without the tom-toms, bongos, and bad folk-singing :-)

Actually CR you miss my point. I have no problem with the Tea Party protesting. My issue is if you protest then you need to have an alternative. I think the Tea Party offers no credible alternative to just about anything. The have no plan they just want to complain about what is. If they want to complain about how the town council is handling development tell us what they would do. Deny any future development? Put limits on the type of housing that can be built? Create an anything goes environment? They need to tell us. They don't offer solutions. They just wrap themselves in their interpretation of the constitution and complain and attack when others see differently.

In the 60's and 70's when the left was protesting people said the same thing When they finally put a candidate up George mc govern they learned how much the rest of America agreed with them The tea party is learning that lessen now. At least the left had a plan of how they wanted to govern. The tea party doesn't

Protest away. But if you want to make a credible argument try and govern or get people to let you govern.

Stack and pack housing is a good idea, just not in places like Danville. Put it where the riff raff live. Keep Danville nice.

And let’s not kid ourselves about climate change. California emits just 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions. California could eliminate all cars, trucks, power plants, etc. and it would have almost no impact in reducing global GHG emissions. Web Link

The developed countries that signed the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 were supposed to reduce their GHG emissions to 1990 levels by 2010. They ended up INCREASING them by 10% to 20% and more. Netherlands GHG emissions have increased by 20%. Canada increased by 24%. Germany and UK increased by 30%. Australia increased by 47.5%. China’s GHG emissions are increasing by over 9% PER YEAR and show no sign of abating.

Live in stack and pack. Walk to work. Drive a Prius. Sneer about being greener than thou. But you’re not stopping climate change. It’s a lost cause.

Yea spcwt. No stack and pack housing in Danville. I have my bulldozer ready. Not only should we get rid of the KB homes new development lets start getting rid of the rest of that stuff that has invaded Danville over the past 20 years. You know the stack and pack behind the library and near Safeway in Blackhawk or even the stack and pack on the east side of 680. Oh wAit don't forget the stuff near CPC And on Danville blvd near SRVHS. We need more bulldozers and probably some black helicopters to boot. The invasion of stack and pack is just beginning or maybe it's too late

Posted by Conservator
a resident of Danville
on Jun 20, 2013 at 11:45 am

@swpcwt,

I think we where at the same graduation. However, you must not have recognized the attending guests. Given the community we live in, there were both relatively contemporary entertainers (two that I saw) and one notable professional athlete with the 'neck tat'. To your 'low-road' inference as to the kind of people these individuals are, it is true that they are all members of a collective bargaining agreement. Yep, their union (NFL and SAG). Imagine that.